Appreciation
by skipmcgee
Summary: There are many ways to say thank you. (Written for the harryandron livejournal FQF).


**Title:** Appreciation

**Author:** Skt23

**Genre:** HP Harry/Ron

**Ratings:** NC-17 to be safe (like that's going to stop anyone)

**Warnings/Spoilers**: Language, Mature Themes, Dubious Humor, No big spoilers

**Word Count:** 2970

**Summary:** There are lots of ways to say thank you.

**A/N:** This is for the FQF in harryandron livejournal community. I picked the challenge_ The wizarding media and general public react to Harry/Ron, and both boys have to deal with the consequences._ And I had a great time writing this. It was an idea I've been playing around with for a while and just needed the extra push to write. And, OMG, I actually got this one betaed - see, even the impossible is possible. Many, _many_ thanks to greenfairy for the awesome, amazing, super fast beta. The one question-and-answer is for you, because you suggested it .

Harry sighed inwardly and swatted the latest example of fan appreciation from his rear end, turning to tell the young witch that, much as he appreciated the sentiment, he really wasn't interested. Luckily this witch took it at face value and effectively bounced off, no doubt to tell her friends what she'd done and how Harry Potter certainly _did_ work out enough for it to show.

Harry turned around to see Ron staring at him, an all-too-familiar irritated expression on his face. Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes, decided to look up at his friend and say "Lunch?". Most of the time Ron could be distracted with food. Well, food and sex - but Harry didn't really think the latter was an option at the moment, as they stood on a footpath on Diagon Alley.

Surprisingly, it seemed to work, and Harry was relieved to see them reach a café with no further incidents. The restaurant was fairly full, but there was no one in their immediate vicinity, most people choosing to be outside on such a beautiful day. Harry was half-way through his complimentary roll when Ron said "You're telling people we're together Harry".

Harry coughed, choking on his bread, and had to drink down half of his glass of water before he felt all the crumbs in his throat go down the right tube. Ron just stared at him patiently, his entire body displaying casual certainty. He could have been discussing the weather; a fact to obviously true Harry would have had to be crazy to disagree.

"What? Why? I thought you were fine with keeping things like this". Ron replied quickly, "Yeah, well that was before every female witch ages 13 and up decided you were public property". Harry wiped his mouth with his napkin before saying, "I didn't think I was _anybody's _property" .

Ron gave him a look that made 'certain things' stand up and pay attention.

Several entertaining hours later Harry realized he shouldn't have been that surprised- after all, Ron had been mentioning that very topic for months now. The only difference was the fact that before Ron had dropped it when Harry had given his reasons.

And it wasn't like it was a secret from everyone. Hermoine knew, as did Ron's parents, and even some of Ron's siblings (although Percy had been meticulously avoided - no one wanted to see Percy make some unthinking statement and Ron punch him out for it - Ron included). So Harry really didn't see the need to let other people in on their private matters. It would just bring more publicity that he didn't want, and beyond that, he didn't want Ron or Ron's family's name dragged through the mud.

He'd been steadily declining in media popularity over the few years since his defeat of Voldemort their last year at Hogwarts. The flurry of media attention had reached a crescendo then, and begun to back down. At least, until Harry earned a spot on the England National Quidditch Team. Being famous for his skills was one thing, and Harry had learned to live with it without too much difficulty. But should he and Ron divulge the true nature of their relationship, he'd end up back on the front pages instead of the sports sections, and worse, this time Ron would be with him.

Although he did understand Ron's problem; hell, he had a problem with it himself. They'd go out together and when they'd get back his behind would be red from all the pinching and slapping. It didn't help that _Witch Weekly_ kept putting him up in the top 5 Most Eligible Bachelor lists every year - and every year, on the week it came out, he'd spend a week with his backside to a wall everywhere he went for fear of permanent damage.

Although the thing that probably bothered Ron the most was the devious nature of the girls who went after him. Harry was a naturally trusting person, although a lot of that had been curbed in recent years. Really, it had to be, after being tricked three times to go see a 'sick relative who was a really big Quidditch fan' which unfailingly turned out to be a horny girl trying to drag him into a storage closet. And it was almost impressive, the ways they found to give him their Floo addresses - he'd change when they got home at night and find numbers all over the place - including one that had given him a paper cut he hadn't been too happy about for quite a few days.

So he did understand, even if Ron didn't think he did. Ron wasn't used to having something of his own, something that was specifically for him and wasn't passed down from his brothers. Harry was his, and Ron didn't want to share, thank you very much. Harry thought he might have had a problem with this, had he felt exactly the same.

Harry tried to keep Ron's mind off the topic, and for a little while it worked. The next time they went out there weren't any incidences, and Harry thought that, given a few more pinch-free trips, he could get Ron to reconsider. His hopes were effectively shattered, though, when Ron said out of the blue while grocery shopping one day, "So when are we telling people about us?".

"Really Ron, its not like-hey!" Harry turned and automatically swatted away the offending hand of a middle-aged witch, who smiled rebelliously in the face of Harry's scowl and walked away, but not before blowing him a kiss.

Harry stared ahead, really not wanting to turn around and face Ron, who was being ominously quiet behind him. He heaved a large sigh and turned, saying to Ron "Fine, but I am _not_ doing some ridiculous press-conference type thing". Ron nodded, clearly humoring him. "We'll see".

In the end they had devised what they considered to be a simple but ingenious plan. Since neither one wanted anymore large-scale media attention, Harry being particularly adamant about this, they decided that the best thing to do would be to just tell people what was really going on. No stories, no avoiding the topic, they were just going to tell the next witch or wizard who asked that they were in a relationship. "Avoid the media circus, but get the word out". Ron had said, making it sound perfectly logical. Their decision having been made, they went to celebrate their brilliance in the best way possible.

Unfortunately their plan didn't work quite as well as they had hoped. Having been out of Hogwarts for a few years both had forgotten the nature of school-age rumors, and how quickly they can get out of hand. Within weeks Harry and Ron's monogamous relationship had become a nightly gay orgy in which Harry did things he didn't think were physically possible, magic or no magic.

The letters he started receiving were a little worrying too, especially judging by the suddenly very mature content change. Gone were the letters by children who wanted to grow up and be Seekers like him, and in their place were letters by Wizards detailing exactly how much of a fun addition to his nightly romp they'd be. Hermoine sat with them one night, reading through what had been a rather large haul for the day.

Harry had been sitting back on his couch, but suddenly lurched forward, saying in offense to the letter in his hand "I do not!". Ron and Hermoine looked at each other, than back at Harry.

"You don't what?" Hermione said.

"A bloody...I mean, come on, a gerbil?" Ron paled visibly and Hermione looked momentarily shocked, before clamping a hand over her mouth.

"And what's this with a 'safety word'? Why would we need a safety word? And even if we did, it wouldn't be 'armageddon'".

Ron replied "Well, actually, Harry, that's kind of a - "

"Shut _UP_, Ron!"

Hermione snorted then, and both men turned and looked at her, Harry looking equal parts irritated and embarrassed. She took a moment to get a hold of herself, then said placatingly "Well, really, what did you expect? You basically made your whole relationship a giant rumor, and people will do strange things to unsubstantiated facts. Why didn't you just do an interview?"

Harry and Ron both blinked.

"An interview?" Hermoine nodded slowly.

"Yeah, you could have just picked a well-respected gay magazine and explained your relationship once to the reporter. Would have saved you a lot of time and letter reading".

Both men just blinked again.

Hermione rolled her eyes, and looked exasperated. "Really, the two of you sometimes..."

Harry and Ron looked at each other a moment before Harry said, "Think it would work?"

Ron replied, "Well how much worse could it possibly get?", his arm making a sweeping gesture to encompass the letters on the coffee table.

Harry looked back to the letter in his hand. "I suppose you're right".

A moment later Ron said "Oh, I was wrong". Both Hermoine and Harry looked at him, Harry saying automatically "hmm?"

"It could get a lot worse. This one sent pictures" Both Harry and Hermoine recoiled in fear. Harry gulped before saying "I'll call around tomorrow". Ron nodded, still looking at the pictures. "You do that".

The interview, as it turned out, was not nearly as bad as Harry had been expecting. Although a lot of that probably had to do with his being harassed by Rita Skeeter as a teenager. He had an automatic connection with her behavior to reporters, and as a result generally tended to avoid them at all costs. This reporter, though, was polite and pleasant, if a little eager to get the full story out.

The personal questions had initially made Harry both uncomfortable and nervous; he was a private person, and not the type to self-analyze. What surprised him was how much of his relationship with Ron was unthinking. Questions he thought most people could answer without consideration gave him pause, because he had never stopped to think about it. It was just the way he felt, and it was just who Ron was. There wasn't any specific thought attached to it. He found himself fervently hoping that the pauses wouldn't come across as uncertainty, because one of the few things Harry had complete certainty about were his feelings for Ron.

He had steered away from questions regarding the specifics of their relationship - the where, when, and how. Just because he had to expose the two of them didn't mean he had to spell things out. He tried to keep his answers fairly dull and generic, hoping to bore away any interested readers. Only once did he actually stray: the reporter had asked what it was about Ron that had 'The Boy Who Lived so ensnared'.

Harry had thought for a moment, trying to verbalize things he never consciously thought about.

"I suppose...I suppose it's just because that's who he is. He's Ron, and he's everything I need, or could ever want. He's everything I'd always hoped for but never expected to get. He's certainly more than I deserve". At which point the interviewer had perked up and asked, "Why do you say that?".

Harry shrugged, eyes wandering to look out the window to his right. "I don't know. Because I've done so many things I wish I could take back or change, and he's so perfectly what I need and want that it seems unfair that I should have so much when I've failed so many. He smiles and I feel happy. He hugs me and I feel safe. He gave me a family, a home, a stability I've never found anywhere else. He was the first friend I had, was the first person who was _always_ there for me, and treated me like I was just Harry".

He had blinked then, blushing as he realized how much he had just revealed. He wondered how much good-natured ribbing he was going to endure from the rest of the team for letting loose for a national audience. He wondered if Mrs. Weasley was going to read it. He gave a momentary prayer to an unspecified deity that she wouldn't post it on her fridge in pride.

Standing up and shaking hands with the reporter, all he could really do was go home and hope for the best, which turned out to be a media circus of a different aspect than he was used to. For the first few weeks he and Ron were constantly attacked by a barrage of questions from reporters, varying from the harmless to the extremely personal in nature.

Ron wasn't the most even-tempered individual and more often than not Harry felt guilty, as he was away playing games outside of the country, leaving Ron to deal with things on his own. But Ron always said he could handle things fine, and Harry never wanted to question him, even when two reports came over the wire depicting an angry Ron punching one reporter and hexing another. As neither one had filed formal charges Harry decided they had deserved it and he was better off not knowing.

And they both had the support of Ron's family and their closest friends, something which was infinitely helpful. Even Percy had come out on their side, which surprised them both, until Ron said it was probably because Bill and Charlie had threatened him into doing so. In any case, they heard nothing but kind words from their family, and were treated with a normalcy that greatly relieved them.

What really surprised Harry through it all, though, was Ron.

From the moment Harry had done the interview with _Modern Gay Wizard_ Ron had never questioned his relationship with Harry. He'd gone on almost exactly as he had before, in the face of homophobic hate mail and incessant reporters, and seemed perfectly content and happy to be with Harry. The thought hit Harry one day when he was making dinner; relieved to know he had the next few days off. He hadn't noticed just how steady Ron had been through the whole thing. It touched something inside of him he had long stopped trying to define, and made him want to find Ron and drag him down to the nearest available bed. Or broom closet. Or office. Or anywhere, really, so long as they wouldn't be interrupted or goggled at.

He settled for jumping him the moment he came home, though, sweaty and tired from the training he did to become an Auror. Ron was learning to become an Auror trainer, teaching incoming Aurors about strategic and tactical decision making. He was extremely young for the position, but since the final battle with Voldemort, no one was questioning his ability.

Harry grabbed Ron by the shirt collar, dragging him down the hallway, feet moving surely from memory alone. He didn't give Ron a chance to question what was going on, although from the way he melted at the first rough kiss Harry didn't think he was going to anyways. With dexterity that surprised even himself, Harry had Ron's jacket off and on the floor of the corridor, his belt on the bedroom floor, and his shirt unbuttoned by the time they reached the bed.

Harry had pushed Ron down so that he was sitting on the bed, with Harry standing in between his legs, leaning down to continue the kiss. When he finally pulled back Harry took him in: red hair disheveled and falling in his eyes, face flushed, lips parted and wet. He was irresistible to Harry in that moment; as necessary as breathing, as addictive as a drug.

He kissed Ron one last time, fingers sliding under Ron's undershirt, before he pulled away and slid down to his knees, fingering the zipper on Ron's pants. He heard Ron's breath quicken and smiled, before sliding the zipper down with one hand and slipping the other hand into his boxers. Ron jerked in his hand and that was all she wrote, every trace of Harry's patience and finesse out the window as intense desire took its place.

Harry realized after that the thing he found most arousing about Ron was the way he just let himself go. That, after Harry had pulled back and wiped his mouth and looked up he had seen Ron, laying crossways on the bed, one hand still in Harry's hair, unconsciously stroking. He was so naturally sensual that Harry couldn't help sliding up to climb on top of him and kiss the sleepy redhead.

He had been about to fall asleep when he heard Ron whisper "Harry?". Harry had dazedly looked up, replying softly, "Yeah?".

Ron had licked his lips, blinked, then said "Armageddon".

Harry cuffed him on the side of the head and then went to sleep.

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Endnote: Thanks to all the people who have taken the time to leave reviews. You've all been very sweet and I really do appreciate the kind words, and I'm glad you're enjoying the stories


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